Lakeisha N. Holloway, 24 (Las Vegas police)
Las Vegas police have identified the woman who is alleged to have intentionally driven her car onto a busy sidewalk outside a popular casino killing one person and and injuring 34 others, including five Canadians, two of whom are listed in critical but stable condition.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Joe Lombardo said police initially had trouble identifying Lakeisha N. Holloway, 24, of Oregon, because she had no identification with her at the time of her arrest.
Lombardo said surveillance video obtained by police leaves no doubt in his mind that Holloway ploughed her car into crowds of people intentionally, but police have so far ruled out terrorism.
Investigators are looking into Holloway’s past and background to determine a possible motive for the attack, he said.
It appears Holloway had been homeless and living in her vehicle with her young child, said Lombardo.
Holloway is expected to be charged with one count of murder using a deadly weapon and several charges of attempted murder, child abuse and child neglect, said Clark County District Attorney Steven Wolfson speaking alongside Lombardo.
She has been remanded into custody and authorities have taken charge of a three-year-old girl who was with Holloway in the car during the incident. The child did not suffer any injuries, Lombardo said.
It’s too early to say whether authorities will seek the death penalty for Holloway, Wolfson said.
The county coroner identified the deceased victim as 32-year-old Jessica Valenzuela of Buckeye, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix. The coroner said the woman had been visiting Las Vegas with her husband. A cause of death is pending, with an autopsy scheduled Monday.
A total of 35 people were impacted — in addition to the fatality and critical patients, 26 suffered non-critical injuries and four were treated and released from area hospitals. The injured were being treated at four local hospitals. The most seriously injured patients have taken to two hospitals: University Medical Center and Sunrise Medical Center.
Danita Cohen, spokeswoman for University Medical Center, told CBC News that of the 15 patients it received, five are Canadian.
“One of our Canadian patients is in critical condition and the rest are in serious condition,” she said.
She said some of the patients required a French translator and at least two of them, a man and a woman, are from the Montreal area.
The crash victims were being treated for head injuries, cuts and broken bones.
John Babcock, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs, told RCI Canadian authorities are aware of five injured Canadians and are working closely with local authorities, and have offered support and consular assistance to those affected.
‘It was just massacring people’
A spokesperson from Sunrise Medical Center told CBC that it had received 11 patients from the crash, but would not confirm nationality. All were adults, with eight discharged and three in fair condition.
Clark County Fire Chief Greg Cassell says the call for help came in at 6:38 p.m. and 70 emergency crew workers were sent to the scene.
The vehicle was in the northbound lanes of Las Vegas Boulevard near Bellagio Way when the vehicle drove up onto the sidewalk in front of the Paris Hotel & Casino.
There were at least two separate locations where the vehicle came up from the roadway and onto the sidewalk, traversing an area from the Paris to Bally’s, Las Vegas Police Capt. Brett Zimmerman told reporters.
The driver, behind the wheel of a 1996 Oldsmobile with Oregon plates, left the scene but was later taken into custody.
Justin Cochrane, a property manager from Santa Barbara, Calif., told The Associated Press he was having dinner at a sidewalk restaurant outside the Paris Hotel & Casino and across the street from the famous Bellagio Fountain when the crash took place.
“It was just massacring people,” he said.
The vehicle then went further down the road and backed into another crowd of pedestrians, he said, estimating that rate of speed at between 45 and 65 kilometres per hour.
Cochrane said he couldn’t understand why the car went into the crowd a second time. “Why would it slow to go around and then accelerate again?” he said. “I thought it’s a crazy person.”
Cochrane said he saw children and adults injured and on the ground as the car drove away.
The Strip was closed down for several hours as police processed the scene, and they also planned on reviewing video from casino-hotel surveillance cameras.
The Miss Universe pageant was being held nearby at the Planet Hollywood Las Vegas Resort & Casino at the time of the crash but there were no indications of a connection.
In 2005, a 27-year-old California man intentionally drove into a crowd of people in Las Vegas near Bally’s, killing three people. He later pleaded guilty but mentally ill, and received the equivalent of a life sentence.
On Oct. 24, a woman was accused of driving into a crowd during Oklahoma State’s homecoming parade in Stillwater. Four people were killed, including a 2-year-old boy, and more than 40 were hurt. The driver, 25-year-old Adacia Chambers of Stillwater, was this month found competent to stand trial on four counts of second-degree murder and 46 counts of assault.
With files from CBC News, The Canadian Press and Associated Press
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